Abit kt7a and southbridge 686 Problems?

[GrimReepr]

I have an abit kt7a motherboard, a sb live value, and an itchy head from trying to figure out the malfunction. I have heard that the sb lives and southbridge 686 don't like each other. Like it locks up the computer and stuff? I also heard that the ata100 controllers are also slow because of the 686 chipset? I was just wondering, because my cdrom kept locking up the computer while I was copying files, although I think that was a heat problem. Please comment on these rumors. Thanks

 

[Desmoquattro]

Yah that southbridge is scaring the isht out of me...I would've decided to get an AMD sooner if it wasnt for that. You could find hundreds of threads on that subject, there are even dedicated sites on that subject. Anyways, I think Abit has a BIOS patch that supposedly fixes that conflict with the Live. Some people here avoid it completely by buying a Santa Cruz or an GTXP.

 

[Boonesmi]

one of the potential problems with the 686b southbridge was file corruption and system locking up when transfering large files from one ide channel to another.

example would be a cdrom on the secondary copying to a hard drive on the primary
or hard drive primary to cdburner secondary

several fixes. either download and flash your motherboard to the newest bios version (most motherboards released bios's with fixes for it months ago)
also the newer via 4in1 drivers have fixes for it



but i would say head to abits web page and download the newest bios.

 

[Boonesmi]

Desmoquattro got in right before me

 

[ssrgp0]

Bump^^, yup just dnload the latest BIO will fixed the problem, not sure if the VIA4in1 file has any effects on it, you should install it anyway since is official on VIA website. Abit better release a new BIO supporting the AthlonXP processor for their kt7a board.

 

[GrimReepr]

Actually I don't have to download the bios flash, because the via 4.33 drivers fixed it. I had 4.29 in there, and via says that it didn't fix the dma channel thingy until 4.31. Another happy note is that my sb live value does not pop or do any sheet. I recommend putting the sb live value in the very last pci slot, this gives the best results for crackly stuff. Do not fear the southbridge, via fixed it all good. Not to mention, there is some other program called latency fix out there on viahardware.com that fixes the lockups and popping for the sb live value even if the via 4.33's don't. Later Guys